Happy belated Blattecke Tag to all who celebrate. 6.2.67, Februrary 6th, 1967, the date Gerhard Richter signed on most of the 739 examples of Blattecke (Sheet Corner) [Ed. CR 11], the 1967 offset print edition based on a full-scale photo of a little 1965 painting, Umgeschlagenes Blatt (Turned Sheet) [CR 70-2], which was 24 x 18 cm.
739 seems like a pretty big edition already, but Richter conceived of the edition as open and unlimited. How open and how unlimited is not clear. Richter’s website only mentions two additional examples, one dated 15.5.97, bringing the total to 741.
Well, another post-’67 Blattecke just turned up for sale at Grisebach with a date of 11.2.2017. But in addition to the date, Richter puts the edition number on the corner of the turned up page. So by February 2017, the count was at 906.
What’s happened since?
In 2019 a print turned up in Paris with an inscription date of 8.9.2017. It did not sell. The auction listing gave the date for the work not as 1967, but as 2015, the year Werner Schäfke’s 200-yr anniversary history of Köln auctioneers Kunsthaus Lempertz was published. Some editions of that book included original woodcuts and a Sonderedition [special edition] Blattecke, unsigned.
I think the Paris one is from the Lempertz book, but signed. It’s larger (255 x 197 mm vs 233 x 174mm), the signature format is different—and it doesn’t have an edition number. So even if he did sign it, he doesn’t count it. Literally.
But does this mean in 50 years, Richter only put out another 167 of his unlimited edition? [Or is it in 20 years, since the last one recorded, in 1997? Was it dormant for thirty years? Or just underappreciated?] How many since 2017? Richter’s website lists two dimensions (also 239 x 180 mm); did he print two batches? Does he have a dwindling box of blanks ready to sign and ship? Or a closet full? Or a pallet? So many questions.
[And some answers a couple of weeks later: The editorial team in Richter’s studio clarified that “the Blattecke series (Edition 11) was originally conceived by the artist in 1967 as an open edition, to be numbered consecutively. Contrary to the original plan, Richter stopped the edition at number 739. However, he has created 291 further pieces for this edition in 2014, 2017, and 2019. Therefore, there are in total 1030 pieces within the edition.” Since these further batches were created after the Editions CR (2013), they will instead be reflected on the artist’s website. Thanks!]
The painting Blattecke is based on, CR70-2, is one of 14 nearly identical Turned Sheet paintings. Richter included one [70-3] in his two-person show with Polke in 1966 at galerie h in Hanover. Blattecke itself was first exhibited in a Richter prints survey in 1970.
In 2018, two Blattecke from the estate of August Haseke, the director of galerie h, somehow didn’t sell, even though they blew the doors off the whole project. Because Richter used them as note paper. One was a proof, no. III, and not dated, and the other was signed and dated 6.2.67, but not numbered, with the note is dated 21.11.69. My German cursive is not great, but I think this is about the delivery of another batch of 101 signed prints, nos. 286-386. Two and a half years after he initiated it, Richter had delivered just half of Blattecke. [post-weekend update: thanks to Claudio, see a full transcription and translation here.]
[week later update: these notes and more are now in the Richter Archive at the state collection in Dresden.]
Here I was picturing a Felix-like stack of prints ready to undermine art world elitism, being taken up like flyers at a demonstration. I think it did not go down quite like that.
And while I do want to know what’s been going on since 2017, the real question is, are they still available? How? Has Richter been over Blattecke, and has kept it going only when he had to, or is it a Kawara-scale life’s work we’ve all been sleeping on this the whole time?
23 Feb 2025 Lot 1888 Gerhard Richter, Blattecke, 1967/2017, est EUR1200-1500 [update: sold for EUR 8255, schön!] [grisebach]
Gerhard Richter, Viral Artist